major reference

...with integers, the resulting numbers are invariably themselves integers—that is, numbers of the same kind as their antecedents. This characteristic changes drastically, however, as soon as
division is introduced. Performing
division (its symbol ÷, read “divided by”) leads to results, called quotients or fractions, which surprisingly include numbers of a new...

computations in

Chinese mathematics

Division is a central operation in
The Nine Chapters. Fractions are defined as a part of the result of a
division, the remainder of the dividend being taken as the numerator and the divisor as the denominator. Thus, dividing 17 by 5, one obtains a quotient of 3 and a remainder of 2; this gives rise to the mixed quantity 3 + 2/5. The fractional parts are thus always less than one,...

Egyptian mathematics

To divide 308 by 28, the Egyptians applied the same procedure in reverse. Using the same table as in the multiplication problem, one can see that 8 produces the largest multiple of 28 that is less then 308 (for the entry at 16 is already 448), and 8 is checked off. The process is then repeated, this time for the remainder (84) obtained by subtracting the entry at 8 (224) from the original...

use of logarithms in calculation

...in which Napier set forth the principles used in the construction of his tables. The basic idea behind logarithms is that addition and subtraction are easier to perform than multiplication and
division, which, as Napier observed, require a “tedious expenditure of time” and are subject to “slippery errors.” By the law of exponents,...